Daisy Girl Scout leader sharing what I do with my troop to achieve the Girl Scout Leadership Experience--on a limited budget. Hopefully, my experience with the Journeys will come in handy for other leaders trying to keep troop activities fun and interesting for the girls!

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Sometimes, a meeting just doesn't go as planned. Maybe you get a late start. Maybe you had too many activities planned. Maybe the girls are all feeling fidgety and don't want to sit still. Or maybe (as in my case this meeting), it's all three. So what do you do? It's hard to do, but try to go with the flow. Cut out an activity, and plan to make it up next time. Throw in an energizer get the wiggles out and refocus. Most of all, remember that the girls are here to have fun!

Pre-meeting: We colored in our final totals for the cookie goal chart. My troop sold a whopping 1,000+ boxes--amazing! The girls were very proud of themselves. Then, I had the girls draw a picture of themselves taking care of themselves for the 3 Cheers for Animals Journey. They came up with some creative ideas (with a bit of prompting)--everything from taking a shower to brushing their teeth to drinking water. Finally, we had them look at pages 6 and 7 in their Journey books to find the secret animals.

Opening: We said our Promise, Law, and Pledge

Circle: We had two new girls join this meeting, so we introduced ourselves through the Lucy Lemon game. We went around the circle and shared the pictures we drew earlier, and then each girl showed us one of the animals she found in the Journey book. (We had planned on reading pages 7-13 in the Journey book and adding a lion to our animal mural, but the sharing took much longer than planned and the girls were ready to move on!)

Song: This week's options were "Flea Fly" or "Boy and a Girl and a Little Canoe". They picked the second one. All the lyrics I found online ended with the girl swimmin' all around, but the way I learned it was the girl ended up paddlin', while the boy ended up swimmin'. The girls loved the twist!

Snack

Activity: For our activity, the girls made an obstacle course. We brought a few items from home, and the girls paired up. Each pair got to pick one item, and then had to use that item to make an obstacle station. They then had to show the other girls how to do the station. After they learned all the stations, the girls got to go through the course! Game: The game we had scheduled to play was Animal Charades, but we didn't have enough time!

Closing: We did fists of five again, plus the Friendship Squeeze. The new girls also received their Daisy pins.

What do you do when a meeting goes off the rails? Leave a message below!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Circle:
Introduce flowers, Read page 5 in 3 Cheers for Animals. Talk with the girls, asking: What’s one thing you like about animals? What
animals have you seen where you live? Have you ever cared for animals (pets,
birdfeeders, etc.)? What did you like about caring for a pet? What’s the most
unusual animal you’ve ever seen? Where did you see it? What did it look like?
Who takes care of it and how?